Brickfinder

Top Ten LEGO Moments In Movies

Friday, July 7th, 2017 by Brickfinder

AFOLs around the world rejoiced when the latest Spiderman: Homecoming trailer hit the web for a very specific reason.

The trailer showcased a certain LEGO Death Star being completely decimated by Peter Parker’s best friend, Ned which is pretty much the first time that the little plastic brick has been featured so prominently in a Hollywood movie.

But this is not the only time that the LEGO brick has popped up which led me to wonder, what are the other times when LEGO makes an appearance?

So I dug deep into my own DVD collection and film knowledge to provide you with this list of LEGO moments in movies!

Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)

This was the scene that started this whole romp through Hollywood’s LEGO movie moments and it involves Peter Parker’s (Tom Holland) high school best friend literally “dropping the ball” when he finds out that Peter is actually Spider-man.

If you have watched the film already, you would know that this is not the only scene in which the LEGO Death Star is featured and LEGO is actually a recurring prop in the movie.

Spider-Man: Homecoming – LEGO Death Star

This shouldn’t be a surprise since Disney owns both Marvel and Lucasfilm so this would be the perfect product placement.

Honey I Shrunk The Kids (1989)

Honey, I Shrunk the Kids – Scorpion Attack

The premise for the movie is that a a brilliant scientist (Rick Moranis) accidentally shrinks his kids during an experiment and they have to navigate the dangers of their backyard to get back to their house for their dad to upsize them.

Honey I shrunk the kids – Escape the LEGO brick

The scene involves just an alleged LEGO brick where the shrunken kids take refuge from the elements. You can’t see any LEGO imprints on the block but this film was made way back in the 80’s (also by Disney) and the only brick toy system worth featuring at that time was LEGO.

Ant Man (2015)

Here is another Disney/Marvel film which had a quiet nod to the LEGO brick. While miniaturised, Ant-Man (Paul Rudd) is escaping from a looming vacuum cleaner which eventually sucks him up into its nozzle.

It is really quick but there is a yellow 2×4 brick that gets sucked up with him into the vacuum bag.

Jackie Chan New Police Story (2004)

Jackie Chan’s New Police Story – LEGO Fight scene

This is probably the biggest feature of LEGO in any movie to date. Jackie Chan is purportedly Asia’s biggest action star and if he wants something featured in his movie, he usually gets it.

Jackie Chan’s New Police Story

LEGO is placed front and center in this fight scene with Jackie and one of the film’s main villains.

Jackie Chan’s New Police Story – Dragon slayer

They practically trash the entire setup in the process but the LEGO logo is plastered everywhere so this is definitely one of the largest shout-outs for the brand.

Tower Heist (2011)

Tower Heist – Map planning

This was a comedy heist movie which had a host of disgruntled employees banding together to rob their former boss.

LEGO is the perfect tool for map planning and the main protagonists use it to chart the fastest route to where the money is kept.

Chronicle (2012)

Chronicle – Look Ma, no hands!

This is one of my favourite movies of that year. It tells the story of three friends who attain telekinetic abilities through contact with an unknown substance. This is the closest thing that Hollywood has ever made to what an Akira movie might be.

The scene in question is where the group of friends are exploring their abilities and one of them uses his powers to build LEGO without using his hands which is something we all wished we could do.

Godzilla (2014)

Godzilla – Star Wars fan spotted

The film is a Hollywood attempt to capture the audience with yet another Godzilla film which didn’t really sit too well with the audience.

There is a very quick shot of a LEGO Snowspeeder and some other build on the floor that belongs to the main protagonist when he was a child. There is one thing though, it is alluded that this was set in 1999 and the LEGO Snowspeeder back then did not look like that.

There is also a shot of a non-LEGO Saturn V Apollo rocket in the background. Foreshadowing much?

Elf (2003)

Elf – LEGO New York City

This movie is one of Will Farrel’s classics and it is about a human who was raised by Santa’s elves who goes on a journey to find his ‘real’ father.

There is a scene where he mistakes a departmental store Santa as the “real” Santa and gets chased around the toy section which a LEGO diorama of New York city gets destroyed.

Problem Child 2 (1991)

Back in the 90’s, there was a spat of movies of kids behaving badly (eg, Home Alone). This was a sequel to the original Problem Child which featured, a very problematic kid with a lot of anger issues.

This is the part where his grandfather visits him and commandeers his room to stay. He throws his bag onto the floor and crushes the kid’s LEGO creation.

If you look closely, the roof of the house is actually a baseplate that was sliced to fit. It is even more painful to watch since that is a rare colour now.

Now You See Me (2013)

Now You See Me – LEGO Mock Up

Essentially another heist movie, this one involves a bunch of magicians getting back at corrupt businessmen.

The cops bust in on their hideout and surveys the room and there is a mock up of the location of their final magic trick made out of LEGO bricks.

So there you have it! It is always great to see our favourite plastic brick make an appearance in movies or get referenced in pop culture. It goes to show that LEGO is not too far from the public mind and is most likely to stay for a very long time.

And if you remember any other movies in which LEGO pops up, do drop a comment! We might just be able to make another list!

I shall leave you with one bonus scene below, enjoy!

Bonus: Avengers Age of Ultron (2015)

Avengers: Age of Ultron – Thor stamps out the competition

This is technically not a LEGO reference but it does relate to the LEGO brand itself. Copycats and clone bricks started to push into the market in a big way and this was a slight jab at the whole situation.

The Avengers are on the run and take refuge at Hawkeye’s home and Thor accidentally steps on what at first glance appears to be LEGO bricks.

To the trained AFOL, you could tell that these bricks do not belong to any LEGO set that we know of which means that Thor probably destroyed some *insert random clone bricks company name*